Location
Tacoma, Washington
Event Website
https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/philosophy/experiential-learning-philosophy/puget-sound-undergraduate-philosophy
Start Date
31-3-2023 2:00 PM
End Date
31-3-2023 2:50 PM
Description
"Ubuntu and the Struggle for Reason: Humaneness Beyond Humanism"
Andrew Shaw (University of Washington)
Comments by Ismael Gutierrez (Puget Sound)
Chair: Emma Cole
This paper examines how modern societies might begin to live by the African philosophy of ubuntu through the prominent example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Following the work of philosophers from perspectives of race and disability, I contend that the liberal conception of rational personhood continues to grapple with problems of exclusion and demonstrate the exigency of theorizing alternative modes of personhood. I then argue in support of ubuntu as a moral system and compare ubuntu with the liberal Kantian tradition. In particular, I hold that ubuntu presents a promising solution to the exclusion problem by viewing personhood as a flexible designation that must be earned through upstanding moral character. I thus find that ubuntu’s central notion of “be-ing becoming” presents a fundamental ontological difference with contemporary liberalism’s emphasis on rationality and autonomy.
Rights
Type
event
Included in
Ubuntu and the Struggle for Reason: Humaneness Beyond Humanism
Tacoma, Washington
"Ubuntu and the Struggle for Reason: Humaneness Beyond Humanism"
Andrew Shaw (University of Washington)
Comments by Ismael Gutierrez (Puget Sound)
Chair: Emma Cole
This paper examines how modern societies might begin to live by the African philosophy of ubuntu through the prominent example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Following the work of philosophers from perspectives of race and disability, I contend that the liberal conception of rational personhood continues to grapple with problems of exclusion and demonstrate the exigency of theorizing alternative modes of personhood. I then argue in support of ubuntu as a moral system and compare ubuntu with the liberal Kantian tradition. In particular, I hold that ubuntu presents a promising solution to the exclusion problem by viewing personhood as a flexible designation that must be earned through upstanding moral character. I thus find that ubuntu’s central notion of “be-ing becoming” presents a fundamental ontological difference with contemporary liberalism’s emphasis on rationality and autonomy.
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/psupc/psupc2023/friday/2